Radio Meteors - Ostrava R1 Gone?

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, lots of stuff going on, not much of it worth blogging about!

However, I am moved once again to note the possible loss of my present (up until now, at any rate) source of Radio Metor Reflections, the TV Transmitter serving Ostrava in the Czech Republic on channel R1. (49.76MHz).

I tried to tune in over the weekend to pick up any Orionid meteors, only to be met with wall-to-wall white noise.

It's an even greater pity, as this is (or was) the last broadcast TV source I could receive on Band I.

I had reported previously that this transmitter was due to close in November, but either this has happened early, or the transmitter is off due to a fault or maintenance.   If I were in charge of a transmitter which is just about to close down, I don't think I'd spend too much effort on maintenance, but you never know!

As of the time of writing this entry, I haven't been able to verify what has happened, all I know is, I have no Orionid trails on my PC!

Interestingly I found a web site by Czech radio amateur Ivan OK2BMU who is waiting patiently for that same transmitter to close down so that he can get cracking on the amateur 6m (50MHz) band!  Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say ...

Band I TV and Radio Meteors - the End is Nigh!

I have blogged a couple of times already about the disappearance of VHF analogue TV in Band I, today I came across a little more information about the demise of the few remaining sources available to we "Meteor Reflection Enthusiasts".

It seems the Ostrava (Czech Republic) transmitter on channel R1 (49.76MHz) will close on 30th November 2011, and the Lousa (Portugal) transmitter on channel E3 (55.25MHz) will close on 26th April 2012, in almost exactly a year's time.

Spectrum Lab Capture of Metor Burst

Quite what, if any signals will be found for displaying meteor reflections once these disappear, I know not, but in the meantime I have resolved to make some audio recordings so that the use of the audio software I use (R_Meteor, SpectrumLaboratory, etc) can be demonstrated should anyone show any interest!

R_Meteor Capture of above SpecLab event

Amateur signals such as beacons are too low in power to fill the gap.   Maybe some QRO beacons are required?   Not very "green", though!

Deep Joy! A New (to me) source of meteor pings!

Tonight, courtesty of a link I found on Andy Smith's excellent TVCOMM web site, a really good list of current Band I (and other) frequencies in use, one of which is used by the Czech Republic. The transmitter is located near Ostrava, and runs at 100kW ERP.

I reckoned this to be a good distance for meteor reflections, so I tuned in my receiver and listened for a while, and, yes, I thought I heard the sound of meteor activity.

On came the software to track it down (first Spectrum Laboratory for a wide sweep, and then R_Meteor for a narrower sweep centred on a 1kHz beat note), and, yes, the unmistakable traces of meteors.

Now for the bad news - according to the link I referred to, this transmitter closes this November. But until then, I well keep looking!

The frequency I am monitoring, in case you are interested is 49.75949MHz, on my FT-920 which does not have any kind of precision frequency standard, just usual bog-standard crystal reference for the synthesiser. (Don't forget, this is offset from the "true" frequency by 1kHz so that the audio spectrum analyser based software works properly)

As you can see from the image above, I am getting LOTS of pings.